Art of well-producing or earth-boring.



' R. 'E. LEONARD. ART OF WELL PRODUCING 0R EARTH BORING. APPLICATION FILED SEPT. I. 1916.

ma ma; v PatentgdlulylY, 1917.

I22 M92 50'); $534 Zeanara! ROY E. LEONARD, OF'LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOk 0F ONE-HALF T0 FRANK W. A JEINLEY, PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA].

ART or wnrt-rno bocme on EARTH-BORING.

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Specification-of Letters Patent.

Patented July 17, 1917.

flpplication filed September 1, 1916. Serial No. 118,128.

To all whom it may concern: Be it known that I, Ror citizen of the United States, residing at Los Angeles, in the county of Los-Angeles and State of California, have invented new and useful Improvements in the Art of Well- Producing or Earth-Boring, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in the art of well prodiicing or earth boring, and particularly relates to that department of such art which concerns the casing off of the well hole or earth bore as it is developed by the bore or drillingtools, such casing ofl", as is well known, being done for the purpose of preventing the earth formations from caving in to fill the hole, and likewise being done to prevent liquid-bearing strata, other than those which it is desired to'exploit by the well, from flooding the well hole.

In boring water and oil wells, two principal methods of drilling are employed, known respectively. as the standard method and rotary method. In the former, tools including the boring or drilling bit or tool and such adjuncts as may be desired or required, is vertically reciprocated, thus cutting,-chipping or drilling away the formations encountered. At the same time, as the drilling progresses, casing is'lowered in the hole, section by section. As the drilling tools have to be lowered through the casing,

they only cut a hole of approximately the diameter of the casing, and underreamers are required to be used to cut out the shoulder or annular formation remaining beneath the casing, so that the lowering of the casing may be continued. This is particularly true in hard formations of rock, which revent the casing being driven down to' ellminate such shoulder. In using the rotary drilling method, the rotary bit or tool is supported at the lower end of the string of sectional casing, and thus no additional casing is required, excepting at times in isolated parts of the hole particularly for the purpose of casing off water or oil or gas-bearing strata. It is the object of the present invention to.

provide a method of easing. ofi' well holes or portions thereof, by separate lengths or sections of easing which are so organized that lengths of the same diameter may be passed one through the other, and even lengths of greater final diameter may in LEONARD, a-

the string oftheir initial condition be lengths of lesser final diameter. By utilizing this method, which involves likewise the expansion of such lengths of casing after they have been brought to the required positions of service, I am enabled to dispense with the use of continuous strings of easing, inasmuch as I am ableto bring to the desired zone of the well hole-the number of lengths of easing which I desire there to use, and to there expand them into positions ofservice where they are effectively maintained. Likewise, I am enabled to do away with the use of underreamers, inasmuch as the lengths of easing are so expanded as to force them into passed through duce a final internal diameter whichis the same as thatof the external diameter of the drilling or boring tools, and, inasmuch as the casing is lowered in the hole in the initial form in which its external diameter is no greater than the-internal diameter of easing already disposed in the hole, no obstacle is presented to lowering of such casing, and therefore no underreamer is required to permit such lowering. The part of the well hole formation to which the casing is to be applied, which includes what would otherwise -be a shoulder obstructing lowering of casing above it and expanded in the hole, is simply disposed of in the expanding of the casing of initially smaller internal diameter, during the expansion of such casing. Likewise, in the employment of the rotary drilling method, lengths of casing may be lowered to any desired position in the well hole, one through the other, and they are expanded in final position of service.

The invention has for its object the provision of a method containing the general features hereinabove set forth which will be superior in point pf relative simplicity and inexpensiveness in employment and practice, with convenience, facil- .well hole or bore is being produced, the

drawing same likewise disclosing the method of distaken upon the posingwell casing in the hole or bore in accordance with the invention;

Fig. 2 is a view similar to Fig. 1 showmg somewhat modified structural details of elements entering into the practice and use of the improved method, and showing sections of easing both before and after final expansion into position of service;

Fig. 3 is a top plan view of two sections of casing, one of which-hasbeen expanded.

- designated by the same reference characters.

casing Referring with particularity to the drawing, my improved method or improvement in the art of well drilling or earth boring, contemplates the employment of sections of A which are so formed as to have initially an external diameterless than that which follows the final disposition of the same in position of service, as by expaning passed tions which have been successively expanded,

sion. In Fig.

disposed in position for B are rovided with interlocking means I) and with packing means 0.

In Fig. 3 the innermost casing section A is shown in its initial form prior to expansion into position for service, and is shown as withinthe confines of and capable of bethrough the outermost section of casing which has been expanded into condition for service. The invention contem plates the use of casing which initially has a smaller outside diameter than it has when service, and this of passing of successive sections of casing into the well hole previously introduced joints 01' secof such casing course permits the joints or through into service condition. Specifically, as one form of such joint or section A or the major portion ofthe joint or section B, I form the same with corrugations or alternate ridges and grooves 5 extendin lengthwise of the joint or section, and .w ereby sufficient metal is provided within a given outside diameter to permit of expanding the joint or section and producing a greater outside diameter. Corrugation is of course only one expedient to thisend, 'but possibly constitutes the most inexpensive and adaptable expedient for the purpose of practising the invention. As shown in the drawing, such lengths or joints of easing may successively be passed into the well hole, and passed one through the other, and by sufliciently corrugating or suitably forming the casing as to its transverse section the casing having an ultimate expanded outside diameter greater than the ultimate expanded outside diameter of casing through which it is passed in the part of cient thrust action to swage is vertically reciprocated by the well 2 modified lengths or sections hole, may be employed at the lower zone of the well. However, it is sufiicient ordinarily if the outside diameter of all the joints of casing introduced within a given well and expanded therein be constant, so that the inner diameter of such-casing be constant,

and be sutficient to provide a workin clear- I ance for the tools utilized in developing the well. When a given length of casing is introduced within the well in unexpanded form to the point at which its service is desired, as for easing off water or as when drilling oil wells, or for casing 0 sand to prevent a cave-in, it being un erstood that such casing is lowered in any suitable manner by the well drilling rig, a swage or the like C is passed into the well hole, being lowered therein by upon a suitable strin D of tools, or as a a string of too s for imparting sufiithe swage, and such drilling rig, so that its pointed end 6 readily enters, and causes the swage body to progressively pass downward within the joints of casing, such swage having an outside diameter sufiiciently large to cause the easing joint to expand sufficiently to produce an inside diameter large enough to permit the string of drilling or boring tools to pass through such joint. In this expanding action, t e joint of casing is forced outwardly into the formation of the wall of the well hole, the corrugations 5, in the joint being so formed, being upset and caused to mutually take a substantially circular ultimate form, in cross section, as clearly shown in the drawing, and particularly in Figs. 3 and 4. In Fig. 1 the upper length of casing A is shown as swaged out into ultimate form to case off the portion of the well hole to which the casing joint is applied, and in the same figure the lower joint A is shown as swaged out or expanded in its upper portion, and in the process of being so swa ed out in its lower portion. Likewise, in ig. and the lower section B is shown previous to being so swaged out.

In Fig. 2 the casing joint B is shown as provided at its upper end with the packing device 0, which may consist of an annulus of plastic or yielding packing material applied to the upper end of the joint B and of less diameter than the inner wall of the well the well drilling rig,

the upper section B is shown swaged out,

' the teeth 6 under action of method. of the inventlonmay at; Whenthe pended by the is expanded similarly and orced into the wall ofthe well hole, servmg ectively to shut oif and isolate any water or gas-producing zoneior any zone of undesired liquid. or gaseous yield encoun tered in the drilling operatlon before there is encountered the stratum stance which is being drilled for. 'Like the sw e; C will and effective co-enof the well be e, thus, in constituting the inter-loo means -6 be forced outwardlly gaged with the we firmly associatlng the joint B wlth the well hole formation and preventing depression of the joint or its being forced on down 'wardly past the proper zone in the well hole in the action of the'swage.

It will. be understood that the improved be employed in disposing and finally locat' at the desired zone in a well being pro need either by the reciprocating or rotary method of illing such lengths of easing as are re- ,quired or desired to strengthen the walls of the hole or prevent invasion ofthehole b fluid or gas. If desired, of course suc lengths of easing can be removed from the wellhole, as is well understood, and by methods well known to those skilled in the art, and such as are employed at the present time and applied in the usual manner; or such well casing may be removed in any suitable manner devised unto that end and not specifically concerned in the invention.

It will be manifest that many variations and modifications may be made from the foregoing description and the illustrative showing of the drawing, in practising the present invention, within the broad scope.

of the same, and a fair interpretation of the following claim. It will be noted that the invention in its practice eliminates the use of the underreamer customarily employed to cut away the shoulder beneath the string of casing lowered in the hole to permit such casing to be further lowered as the development of the hole progresses. economy of casing is produced in that the casing is only introduced within the hole and applied where it is actually required or desired, and thus the great intervening stretches of easing, used in standard pracjoint B so organized is exyielding the subfor removing of well casing formed" Furthermore,

rig such as the calf wheel, I

WhlCh'lIl accordance with standard practice is employed to .handle keep it shifting in the eezing or becoming so as to oppose ready raisin Casin is simply applied 'w ere it is requir and is readily introduced to such zone of re uirement ously insta ed in the hole; thus it is not necessary in practising the present invention to provide continuous strings of casing in order to case ofi' separate portions of the hole, nor is it necessary to withdraw all of the sections above a given section desired to be removed'from the hole, both of which conditions exist in general well-boring practice today. A vast amount of labor and time is thus saved, including the heavy work of screwing and unscrewing the joints of casing use in general practice and which are ordinarily connected by threaded collars.

The casing described and disclosed herein as being referred forms of easing adaptable for t e practice of the present inventhe casing and to holeto prevent its jammed in the hole or lowering.

through casing previclaimed in an accompanying application for Letters Patent filed Sept. 1, 1916, Serial No. 118,129 for an improved article of manufacture.

,Having thus disclosed my invention, 1'

claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

An improvement in the art of well .producing, consisting in passing within the well hole casing of a lesser outside diameter than the inner diameter of the well hole, and then expanding the casing within the well hole to increase the outside diameter thereof and force outwardly the formation of the wall of the well hole; said'casing be ing introduced within the well in corrugated form, and a swage being passed through the corrugated casing to alter its cross sectional formation from that of corrugation to that of approximately circular.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

' ROY E. LEONARD. Witnesses:

H. DAnnnnR, L.S. ARNOLD. 

